Arab Barbarism: Slain Rabbi's Tombstone Defaced for Yarzeit

Muslims pour paint on memorial stone for Rabbi Meir Chai, just in time for memorial ceremony one year after the murder.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 12/14/2010, 12:28 PM

Samaria residents

In an act that Jewish officials are terming "barbarian," unknown Arabs defaced a memorial stone for Rabbi Meir Chai just in time for the memorial ceremony marking a year since his murder by terrorists.

Rabbi Chai of Shavei Shomron, married and a father of seven, was shot dead in his car as he drove home to celebrate his 12-year-old son Elyasaf's birthday. He was a kindergarten teacher by profession. The memorial stands by the side of the road at the place in which he was murdered.

Three senior officials in the Palestinian Authority gunned him down from a passing car. The officials were close to the so-called "moderate leadership" of the PA that includes Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and "Prime Minister" Salam Fayyad. They were subsequently killed by the IDF.

The memorial service for Rabbi Chai is scheduled for 3:00 PM Tuesday at the Mount of Olives.

Elisheva Chai, Rabbi Meir's widow, said: "The Father of Orphans and Judge of Widows will get revenge upon the heartless wicked ones who hurt our feelings in this way. But I can promise you that acts of this kind will not break us. We celebrated Elyasaf's Bar Mitzvah last night, and we will continue to rejoice, live and build the Land of Israel - not in sadness but in joy, as proud Jews."

"Only barbarians can do horrible things like this," Samaria local authority head Gershon Mesika said Tuesday. "People who can pathologically desecrate a memorial for a murdered man are not worthy of being called humans."